Codenames for Disaster: Saru, Nakimushi and Melon
by Crystal Flare
Summary: An enamored goofball, a notorious cry-baby and a sharp-tongued know-it-all. However broken you may think they are separately, together they have the potential to shine brighter than any star in the sky. Will their sadistic sensei, the renowned Special Jounin whose sole weakness seems to lie into nothing more than dango, be of any help at all! Part1 focus AnkoxKaka, SasuxOC, OCxOC
1. Chapter 1: The New Trio

**Summary: **An enamoured goofball, a notorious cry-baby and a sharp-tongued know-it-all. However broken you may think they are separately, together they have the potential to shine brighter than any star in the sky. Will their sadistic sensei, the renowned Special Jounin whose sole weakness seems to lie into nothing more than dango, be of any help at all?! _Pfft *holds back laughter* _

Story begins after the Academy exams, the Rookies already been established and ready to meet their new teammates. Action will follow the events from the anime/manga, but will also contain original material and assignments.

The most likely pairing to happen in this version of **Part 1** is Kaka x Anko – I love them together x3 her sadistic ways and his private perverted mind... Oh la la~! Hints of SasuxSaku, SasuxOC, OCxOC and SasuxNaru will follow _*joke*_

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the series Naruto or anything you can find there, from characters (including the fodder) to settings. All I have are my original creations.

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**Codenames for Disaster: Saru, Nakimushi and Melon**

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**Chapter 1: The New Trio**

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_**Tick... Tock... Tick... Tock...**_

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A perfect uninterrupted sound flooded the dark room, its constant rhythm in harmony with the tranquil atmosphere lingering in the air. The light was barely reaching through, managing to form only a few shy patterns on the wooden floor, the pair of satin curtains blocking its path inside relentlessly. The clock's handles were pointing towards the early time of dawn – 5:38 – the moment when the sun had nearly woken up from deep within its slumber, ready to announce the beginning of yet another wonderful and seemingly peaceful day. The town was losing its deathly stiffness from the night, being painted in the much livelier colors of the sun's showering rays, as the empty streets were slowly flourishing with life in this small village hidden in the thickness of an endless forest.

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But not everybody had the desire to greet this hour with open arms, preferring to lie around just a bit longer inside the safe haven of their dreams. A fairly young, fairly petite dark haired girl dressed in a pair of summer cream pajamas was soundly sleeping in the comfort of her bed, unaware of this shift between nighttime and daylight. Or unwilling to. The sunlight was already gently brushing against her bed covers, bringing forth new waves of warmth as the light crawled closer and closer to her face. A few shifts in bed though – all it took for the attempt to become a rather useless one, the young one snuggling the covers and burying her head under a huge pillow, sighing in displeasure...

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_It was a good dream again... I want back...~!_

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When the clock struck near 7 o'clock, a loud and sharp voice – which was almost powerful enough to wake up the surrounding neighbors had it not been for the partly sound proofed walls – came from bellow and brutally ended the little girl's attempt to fall asleep again. Yawning upset, she tilted her head and peeked at her ticking "friend" over the night stand table. _Why is it so early..._ she thought bitterly, her head collapsing back onto the soft pillow, wishing she could just close her eye lids and drift away for another round in dre-

"JEWEL!"

Alas – was not going to happen with that merciless woman around. However, while she was rubbing her eyes, yawning continuously, the girl couldn't help but notice a really... rare and delicious aroma tickling her nose that she had been craving for months and months. _Wait... could it be she -_

"Jewel~! If you don't hurry up, I'll eat _**them**_in front of you~!"

"W-W-WAIT! ~~~ Be... Be right there, nee-san!"

Jewel quickly jumped out of her bed, carefully though, not to land on any misplaced weapons and rushed towards the bathroom to freshen up. In mere minutes she arrived downstairs, dressed in her regular shinobi outfit – a loose yellow T-Shirt and a black tank top which she wore underneath, a pair of matching black pants and the Konoha hitai-ate wrapped around her neck. Her midnight blue hair was caught up in two high ponytails and a couple of hairpins were used to keep her bangs from completely covering her sky blue eyes.

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Stepping inside the kitchen, Jewel happily noticed that breakfast had already been set on the table. And today wasn't like any other. _There are so many tasty things to eat~! Kyaaaaa~! _Milk, rice, miso soup, grilled fish, tamagoyaki, a couple of nori sheets, umeboshi, natto... Everything so appealing and tempting to devour, yet... something was missing... something of great importance for the young girl... something that had that delicious smell that filled the entire house... Searching the kitchen, her sharp eyes immediately fell onto her caretaker, a young woman who was sitting quite carefree on the counter nearby while holding a bowl and wooden sticks that had enough dango impaled in them to feed an entire family of four. The woman's eyes were glistering quite deviously when their gaze met, unable to withhold a side grin from forming.

"Don't tell me... You've finished them without me already?", the little girl noticed with horror that the woman's mouth had faint traces of chocolate, most likely from the content that was once on the only empty dish still present on the table – it was chaotically smeared with chocolate and what must have been jam and sweet powder. "No way~~~~~!"

The woman giggled slyly, greedily gulping down the last of her dango while watching the girl's tearful puppy-eyed expression. Some people would have easily crumbled if forced to face such an adorable, yet rather pitiful expression... unluckily for Jewel, the purple haired presence had grown immune to it over time. But that day was not an ordinary one, so she played along this silly game. _Just this time_ – she thought while getting off the counter and grabbing the closest chair next to the table.

"Joking, Joking~!", the woman cooed amused. "I kept plenty for you, so stop weeping in front of me like a baby.", she said and observed how the girl's face lightened up almost immediately at the news.

"I can't believe you're still falling for that trick... ", the woman added with a disappointed sigh and leaned against the table, propping her elbows on the wood while holding her face with her hands. All this time, Jewel was silently nibbling onto her bread while eyeing her protector suspiciously. The purple haired woman was acting strangely decent that morning. Normally, Jewel would have already gotten scolded for acting this immaturely at her age, even more considering there are children in the village far younger than the girl – like Hanabi-chan from the famous Hyuuga clan – who behave in a remarkably mature way at any given time and place: at home, at school, during training, alone even. _Saplings that will bloom into outstanding shinobi if they keep up working on their flaws and perfecting their techniques_, the woman kept pointing it out each and every time she would scold Jewel whenever she'd get too childish or uninterested in her training. However, today? The woman was surprisingly pleasant, despite the obvious teasing tone... not to mention there was so much goodness to devour~! Obviously, the woman put a lot of effort in preparing the dishes, more so than usual. _There had to be a catch somewhere!_ Whenever Jewel found the woman to be in such a good mood, it definitely meant that some kind of a surprise was waiting to happen. And looking back to past moments, it was never the good kind of surprise...

"What is it...?", Jewel asked cautiously.

"Nothing special...", her lips curved up even more and then continued. "I still can't believe my little Jewel isn't an Academy student anymore...", she spoke faking a sob. "Crazy, how it feels like only yesterday I've enrolled you to that place..."

"Anko onee-san...", the dark haired girl couldn't help but feel a little hot into her cheeks as she examined the woman's facial expression. It almost sounded like she was – impressed?

"Tell you the truth, I didn't believe you could graduate this year seeing as though you had joined months later than the rest of your age group... hell, few are even capable of finishing their studies in the Academy faster too!"

Jewel pierced her protector's eyes more intensely and could no longer hide her amazement from the outside. That... really hit a soft spot... in a good way~! I mean... just knowing that she managed to overcome Anko's expectations – which believe me, is not an easy task to accomplish at all – meant a great big deal to Jewel, the girl happily taking it all in... while it lasted.

"Also... seeing as though you have absolutely no talent when it comes to taijutsu, it's an incredible achievement indeed. Not to mention your horrible - and I do mean - horrible ninjutsu. Honestly girl, you need to work on that some more because even children, like that Hyuuga kid, are better than you at it and you're her sempai by almost four years~! Really, was your sensei blind or do these Academy exams have become too soft and easy?"

And with that the lovely morning mood was completely ruined. Needless to mention Jewel had fallen into a cloud of depression, feeling a heavy weight dropping hard onto her shoulders... So cold...

"Wow... thanks for that...", the girl mumbled sarcastically with a few chunks of pancakes stuffed into her mouth... not even her favorite food worked in cheering her up...

It was bad enough she struggled in certain areas because... face it... she hated any type of physical workout, especially those in which Anko was more than aggressively involved whenever she had days off of village duties. Jewel's body was fairly weak even after all those harsh training schedules, so in a pure taijutsu confrontation the girl would most likely be defeated in the long run – she hated the sensation of her muscles in pain with a fiery passion, so taijutsu... not exactly her thing at this point in life, heh. However, luck shined upon Jewel on the day of the exam that took place only a few days before. It was fairly easy to finish for it had been centered on the theoretical notions studied at the Academy rather than having to accomplish any strenuous physical tasks. Jewel was pretty good at memorizing data and could understand even the more advanced notions, so she wasn't completely useless as a kunoichi if she used her mind right and would not be dazed during confrontations to get wounded... or worse, killed.

"Hm... Sorry, sorry~! But really, you're always making such a cute face when you get upset. I just couldn't stop myself~!", she stuck out her tongue playfully, though she rapidly resumed a more serious posture. "Still..."

"...?"

"You really are an impressive girl... You've come so far already in such a short amount of time... Heck, even I'm surprised by this, Jewel and I thought you were a hopeless dead weight!"

"...Dead weight?", Jewel asked all gloomy, despite the woman intending that to be a compliment... a really lousy compliment.

"Keep this up~!"

Even so, observing her features more attentively, Jewel couldn't see anything that would give away Anko's true thoughts if she had any hidden in herself... _So she really meant it... Heh... In the end, this day didn't start that incredibly badly at a- _

"I can't wait to start training you harder! From this day forward, I'm going to pay extra attention to your training and I'll pump enough muscle in you to break even the hardest of rocks and get rid of that baby fat!"

_-ll... huh? Saaaay, what again?_ "Wait, I'm sorry. What?!", the girl asked.

"It's true. Also, I won't hold back on you anymore now that you've finished your Academy training.", Anko spoke to Jewel smiling and twirling the wooden sticks around her fingers.

"All this time you were holding back?!", she blurted it out half-scared, half-angered – obviously the woman didn't take notice of this. The training sessions with the purple haired woman were insanely hard and sometimes even crazy for she **loved** summoning those unsettling snakes and no... not the small fry. The real deal.

"So be prepared, I'll get you in proper shape in no time, Jewel!", she threw the sticks towards the girl and barely missed scratching her face, slicing through some strands of hair as they passed. "Hey... You don't have to be this happ-"

"All this time you were holding back...", she repeated the words in a whisper, the shock still sinking in as she was watching Anko's heart filled laughter. The next minutes, the conversation died out, a gloom cloud latching onto her frail body like a leech. The girl could have sworn that sadistic woman was enjoying all of this too damn much, her good mood making her look unrecognizable that morning.

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Thankfully, it was time for both of them to leave the household, not before the woman gave Jewel a set of directions in order for the girl to more easily find Iruka sensei's classroom.

"Don't forget. Head straight for the Academy after you meet up with that Naoko kid. Don't you dare take unnecessary detours to whatever stores you might find on the way, unless you want to be-"

"-really, really late and get in a lot of trouble and have the higher ups on your back again. Yeah, yeah. I know that already. Every single day you keep telling me this~!", she whined, but received a cold glare and a slight hit on the head which instantly silenced her. Jewel's sense of direction wasn't a very good one – unless there was a prominent object around which she could possibly use as a guiding point. For example, in a forest she'd totally end up being lost if left alone without any companions around, so days and days and days would need to pass in order to find the road back home... If ever... but, that might be just an exaggeration from Anko's side. Jewel felt confident in herself enough to not end up in such a ridiculous situation~!

"I wouldn't need to do this if you'd actually paid attention to my advices for a change! No matter the circumstances, you're always lat—"

"Ittekimasu!", said the girl hurriedly, not listening to the final part of that speech as she disappeared rather quickly from her sight. Locking the door, Anko let a heavy sigh escape her lips. Walking down the street towards the Hokage's workplace, she allowed her mind to slightly wonder off. _"Hmph... She's spending too much time around Kakashi... so many bad habits rubbing off on her because of you."_, she shook her head slightly, chuckling amused afterwards. Oh, and speaking of the devil –

"Yo."

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Jewel was running through the narrow streets, carefully avoiding any locals blocking the road and stopped only after she had arrived at the Aizawa residence. Her best friend was living there with his mother, their home not far from the Mitarashi's place – the distance between them being roughly around ten minutes walking. Naoko was patiently waiting for the girl outside, gazing in a dreamy way towards the view in front of him. His cheeks carried a faint blush - his facial expression suggested something was greatly troubling him.

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_"Today is the day..." _

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Naoko could be a pretty goofy person sometimes, but it was part of his charm. He wasn't what girls might consider handsome, the type they'd fawn over and admire, but he didn't have bad traits either. His dark brown hair was short and slightly unkempt, spikes heading in every direction and a pair of extremely beautiful amber eyes, like his father's. Or so his mom kept pointing him out, Naoko felt they were not that special... Anywho. His right ear was pierced by a silver earring and he carried a necklace around his neck that was almost entirely hidden by one of his favorite dark brown T-shirts, the one with cream colored kanji written on its back. The second layer was a fishnet blouse that had the left sleeve much longer than the other one – both tightly hugging his skin. He also wore a fingerless glove on his left hand, a metallic plate on top of it for protection, dark trousers that went a little further down his knees, a pair of brown shinobi shoes and the Konoha headband worn proudly around his head. He was aimlessly brushing his right foot across the ground he was standing, creating nonsensical patterns using the dirt and dust covering the road.

_"No more chances like this ever again... this is the day fate will finally decide if I'm worthy or not to be with her! This is the day when love wins another battle in this world!", _he thought, proudly carrying a stupid looking grin – even chuckled a few times. _"Sure, __I'll have to train harder and harder so that I'll be sure Jewel-chan's impressed with my amazing skills... he he he... _she'll surely fall for me then and love will prevail...Yoshi!"

"What are you mumbling about, Nao-kun?"

The boy's heart jumped painfully hard in his chest when he turned around only to feel a painful pinch in his arm. The boy's mind had been flooded with so many worries and thoughts that he had forgotten to keep an eye on the lookout in case Jewel was around the vicinity and now his well-planned confession scheme risked going down the drain. He didn't think the situation through and instinctively backed away from her, resulting in him accidentally slamming his elbows on a neighbor's wooden fence.

"Na... Nao-kun...", the girl squinted her eyes and stared at him awkwardly... he was acting odd that morning – just like Anko... "What were you doing?"

Naoko mentally cursed as he realized the last words were spoken out loud. _"Noooo! She's heard me! Calm down, calm down... take a long deep breath and converse like nothing happened..._ What? I was... umm... really? Oh, well, it's... umm... _Damn it, I said converse like nothing had happened ~ man!_"

"AH~! I get it now!", Jewel screamed, unwillingly filling the boy with even more fear than before. "So that's what it was all along, I should have guessed sooner..."

"Y-Y-You do?", he inquired, his heart racing incredibly fast. Naoko was beyond panicked, confused, anxious, terrified, sweating from his pores like mad. His knees turned into a pile of gelatin, Jewel's face getting closer to his...

"Yeah."

"J-Jewel... I... You see... Truth is... For a long time... I..."

"Nao-kun, you..."

_Could even smell the subtle fruity perfume she sprayed onto her neck... So much closer to his... Jewel~! Here I co-_

"Definitely must be excited to finally be part of a real ninja team, not just an Academy simulation! I bet that's why you're so nervous~!"

_The F— ?_

"Am I right?"

Naoko blinked a few times in disbelief and then sighed, slightly relieved that she didn't overhear any of his rambling. His chance to shine in front of her eyes was still there though – all he needed was patience and more time to see how he'll handle this without turning into a staggering illiterate fool again. If the day would go his way, then his first Naofficial mission as a Genin would be... winning Jewel's heart once and for all. Gosh, he couldn't wait! He could just imagine...

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_The classroom was far from quiet, far from empty, far from peaceful – and most importantly – far from QUIET. It's been at least a few minutes since the noise had escalated all thanks to the arrival of the lovely kunoichi duo one would ever have the luck and pleasantry of meeting – _not_ – the eternal rivals of love, Ino and Sakura. Sigh. __In times like these I wish I had brought something to properly entertain myself with... or silence those annoying girls for good – a far better option._

"Kyaaaaa, look how cool he is~!"

_Sigh... If I am unlucky enough to be in a team with girls, I'd rather them be like Hinata... Kami-sama... I swear, I'll have you in my prayers every single day for a whole month and even go to the temple for prayers with my grandparents! Just... just... -_

"He's so dreamy~!"

"Oh lord, he actually looked at me~! KYAAAA~!"

_- don't make ANY of them my teammates! I am begging you - on my knees if I have to~!... But... Considering my brilliant luck, the opposite of what I want WILL eventually happen... for crying out loud, should have mastered an invisibility jutsu so I could blast shuriken at them and get away from the repercussions... _

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Midori. Shibuya Midori – one of those seemingly rare girls attending the Academy who did not enjoy being surrounded by people she deemed bellow her in intelligence, by shallow or pathetic individuals. In other words: most girls here. But not because she had problems with the gender itself, she wasn't really like that... however... ever since the Uchiha kid became an immensely popular figure in the Academy, it's like everybody had gone bonkers mad over him and did not bother to think straight anymore. They threw away their pride and their ounces of dignity over someone who wasn't even aware of their existance - or cared enough to actually give a damn even if he did notice their presence. She had even pointed this fact out to countless enamored beings – Midori was much more naïve and caring towards people when she started her studies there. She meant well, despite her sometimes harsh methods and hurtful words used to demonstrate the truth behind her opinion. Not often had she given her _friends _some severely needed _tough-love medicine_ to wake them up from their constant _Sasukeeeee _daze. She wanted to show them he wasn't worth all the trouble, all their tears... the world was so huge and big and beautiful – surely there were countless of other possibilities! Even in the Academy she could name at least a handful of people who would be adequate fits for them. _Sigh_... Midori would always get shoved away and end up the one truly hurt, never to hear kind words from these _friends_ afterwards. Because of this constant rejection, Midori decided to keep a low profile and stay away from other people's business._ Hey, if they want to suffer, then by all means. Go. Ahead!_ So for years now, she kept her shields up high so she wouldn't tear up from something juvenile like that ever again. She stopped seeking any bonds or making any noticeable friends becoming a very private girl, who kept most of her daily life to herself. She was rarely talking to other students, rarely seen with a partner during training... Inside the classroom she would sit by the desk closest to the window and stare outside, preferring to admire the constructions and trees rather than socialize with anybody.

Her shields somehow affected how she regarded herself physically too. She hated her natural hair, those flimsy blonde locks – a lot. It was somehow always used in comparison with the Yamanaka's whose style apparently was ten times better than hers, ten times prettier and healthier. Eventually, Midori snapped out of anger and sadness, shocking her classmates AND family when she revealed a set of short, forest green hair style, cut mildly shorter than Sakura's at the present moment. Her clothes carried dark shades too, as the years passed by combinations getting closer to black, a real fan of the color. She looked so unusual for a child though. Creepy. Weird. Different.

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**Even now.**

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Her hair reached mid waist, being pulled back in a pony tail, subtle red hair clippings keeping the wild strands of her bangs at bay. She was wearing a short dark red tank top over a long fishnet T-Shirt, a pair of black shoes and matching pants that went just bellow her knees. They had two large pockets on both sides where she kept her daily shinobi equipment: some kunai and shuriken, along with a wire roll and countless explosive tags. _You could never be too careful when a possible enemy might appear, even inside the village_. However, nothing she wore was satisfactory anymore – ever since graduation day. Her outfits paled in her eyes, as the most cherished possession of hers had to be the newly acquired Konoha headband, HER own Konoha headband, which was tightly hugging her waist for everyone to see and admire – at home. Another successful step towards accomplishing her dream! _Hell yeah!_ Sadly, she could barely concentrate on this little victory or the beautiful view outside... sensei was nowhere to be around and she couldn't do anything about the noise, just wait and hope the drama would end soon.

**"NARUTO! **Get out!"

The girlish quarrel didn't take long to escalate, even more persons bringing shame to the female gender by bugging in to take the spot near the Uchiha at the price of inconveniencing the blonde kid. Even girls from different classrooms came – _Just brilliant _– so in the end, the ones who stood away from this overall pathetic display were Midori and, as always, the silent Hyuuga girl. All the time Sasuke was somehow brilliantly ignoring all the commotion, keeping his icy cool attitude throughout the entire ruckus. Until...

_"_What the —?!", Midori blurted out all of a sudden, looking as shocked as the rest of the people present there. Realizing what's just happened, the girl quickly covered her mouth with her hands as she could not suppress the chuckles that flooded out of her mouth. A million years and she would have never pictured such a scenario to happen in reality. Who would have thought that idol boy's first kiss would be accidental AND with Naruto – out of all people?! Too hilarious to be true! Well... for Midori at least, since everyone else had a different reaction towards it. The fans, especially, marking this the day when Naruto saw the darkest side of a girl in pain. The result? Multiple bruises, bumps and cuts, broken bones here and there, bold spots...

Suddenly, the doors slid wide open.

"Finally..."

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Panting, the brown haired boy stepped inside, shortly followed by the dark haired girl who was in the same condition like him. Just in the nick of time as well; a few more minutes and Iruka-sensei would have arrived and teamed up the graduates between each other.

"Why do you think... she keeps telling you... the same thing... over and over again...?", Naoko asked feeling out of breath.

"I'm sorry... I just couldn't... help myself... were adorable... I couldn't resist... not playing with them..."

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**"TAKE THAT!"**

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It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on, Jewel looking absolutely repulsed by what she was seeing... and frightened... "They seem so... unfriendly. I don't like this place at all... Let's head back to the pet shop~!", she added in a higher pitched voice as she tightly held onto Naoko's arm, hoping it would convince him to return back to that lovely pet store. Anxiety was spreading through the girl's body like poison, not enjoying another second in this awful environment... that poor boy, so helpless and hurt, but no one did anything, except watch like it was not cruel, not abnormal at all.

"We c-can't l-leave.", Naoko stammered, his cheeks boiling red thanks to the girl's sudden squeeze. Truthfully, he didn't like being there any more than her, but it was an important day for both of them, so they were not really allowed to miss it... especially Jewel, the consequences in her case being more dire than in his since she had to live with that scary woman, Anko. Also, the pet store owner knew the Jounin well enough to let it slip from his tongue whenever Jewel lingered around his shop... and for how long. So not a chance going back.

"At least **she** feels... harmless." Naoko stated, watching the weird Hyuuga girl as she kept flinching every few seconds, her eyes never leaving the blonde. _Sigh... Wasn't the best solution, but compared to the other figures in the room, hers had a more innocent vibe, so it had to do. _

"But the seats are all taken..."

"I can take care of that for you...", he lovingly caressed the metallic plate of his glove, but gave up on the idea quickly when he caught a glimpse of Jewel's eyes narrowing slightly at him while she was shaking her head disapprovingly. "What~?"

"Let's head over there... ", the girl whispered, hinting with her head towards the far end of the row. "She looks alright too..."

Of course, her idea was in an instant shot down by the boy, but he was fighting a losing battle. "That's not alright, that's called dangerous!", he answered in the same lower voice register, eyes trailing on the kunai the kunoichi was playing with menacingly.

"Don't be silly... Looks can be deceiving~!" , she spoke with a newfound confidence, which came out a tad forced – like Jewel was trying to convince herself into believing in such words too. "Plus... everywhere else is full so lead the way, Nao-kun."

Naoko sighed deeply, thus admitting defeat and pulled Jewel towards the stranger, examining her weird attire and the weapon she was holding. _"I don't like this...__I don't like this at all."_, he mentally cursed, but brought up the courage to start a conversation with the green haired girl who didn't realize those two coming right at her. The boy coughed quite rudely, his eyes almost instantly being pierced by the girl's green iris, sending chills down his spine as they've met.

"A... Are these taken?", he asked removing his point of interest towards Jewel, who was standing in such a way so Nao's body could protect her from the stranger's view. After what seemed like a long and heavy pause, the moss haired girl slid towards the left side, thus allowing both of them to temporarily accompany her.

"Go ahead.", she answered without expressing any kind of emotions on the outside – disgust, nor happiness. That must have been a good thing, right? Not quite. The moment she met the guy's eyes, Midori knew she wouldn't like his type one bit, but she shrugged the feeling away. Not like she cared anyway.

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*.*

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After a congratulatory speech and a few last advices, it was time for the new Genin teams to be announced, everybody freezing in place, anxiously awaiting the results. Everyone, except a few:

"Team 7. Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke."

Naruto and Sakura were both so incredibly happy, yet sad, taking turns to visually express these strong emotions in sets of screaming. As for Sasuke... he was as silent and as indifferent as usual, although he was definitely annoyed by the team he was placed with, already considering them huge nuisances. At that moment, the pinkette began taunting Ino ruthlessly, having a sly and victorious look plastered across her face for in her mind, she became the clear winner of their rivalry. _Sasuke was hers to grab~!_ This only enraged the blonde further, feeling even worse after finding out what screwed up teammates she had. The worst possible day... _Sigh_...

"Team 11: Aizawa Naoko."

Naoko gulped and felt his pulse intensifying. He really wanted to have Jewel with him... they practically grew up together after having attended the same class in the Academy so from the start they could work out well together.

_"Come on, come on, come on! Please say my Jewel's name!"_

"Shibuya Midori."

_"Darn it, not HER!"_, he cracked his knuckles and felt a wave of sheer disappointment washing down his body, but was immediately set in a better mood with a tighter squeeze from Jewel, who smiled sweetly at him... like she'd always do when he'd feel down, her way of saying..._"Relax. Everything will work out fine."_

"And..."

There was a slight pause, barely noticeable for the untrained ears. He narrowed his eyes for not even a couple of seconds, but he quickly returned to his usual expression.

"Mitarashi Jewel."

Hearing this almost determined Naoko to cheer or yell out of sheer happiness. He couldn't believe his ears and even rushed to ask Jewel to repeat that last name for him, earning a pretty rough pinch on his skin. Finally, FINALLY! One of his greatest wishes finally came true! Screw that Midori herb, nothing could ruin his mood that day~! N-o-t-h-i-n-g~! He was so thrilled having Jewel as his teammate that countless heart shaped bubbles started popping in the surrounding air, leaving traces of red and pink streams behind. Naoko was unaware of what was going on in the classroom after that point, for he was already transported in his perfect, daydreaming world, planning the next steps into winning the girl's heart, a much easier task now that they could spend more time together. He could barely wait~!

_**"FATE IS ON THE SIDE OF LOVE! HELL YEAH!"**_

"Nao-kun...", Jewel mumbled with a frown and gazed at him weirdly, not understanding what was happening to him and wondering why his skin was so incredibly red, similar to those days when he'd spend too much time under the summer light. Was he feeling ill or...?

"Naoko and Jewel, huh?"

The girl's attention shifted towards the one sensei called Midori, who had a slightly warmer expression now that the teams had all been chosen. Although her first impression of those two wasn't that great, they were probably far better than any other choices around... so she had to live with this decision and hope for the best, ne? Plus, getting rid of both Ino and Sakura was a plus in her book, so god didn't screw up everything for Midori.

"Looking forward to knowing you.", she continued in an almost robotic way, like she was rehearsing a line from a script, trying to act it as genuinely as she could. But no matter, Jewel didn't catch such a subtle interpretation and simply nodded, sending the girl a faint smile.

"Congratulations to all 15 teams this year!", Iruka added after the sorting was over. "A Jounin teacher has already been assigned to each of the teams, so better make sure you come back here for tomorrow's first meeting with them. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask me or any other school staff."

"Iruka-sensei!"

"Naruto..._ What now...?"_

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**A/N:** Really impressed you've gotten this far ^.^ Rest assured that future chapters won't be so incredibly long, probably half of the intro's length at best. Hope you liked this, as chapters progress there will be less humorous moments as it will be drama... even some deaths, other than in the manga/anime so... beware~!

Criticism on any channel (review/pm) and faves are always welcomed ~!


	2. Chapter 2: Hindrances Already

Hello~! Already gathering up followers, I feel really happy you people take interest in the story already! ;~; I hope to see more reaction in the future – since I tend to... overwrite and add many details to stories, I'm not always sure I reach readers really well through words :D so any criticism is welcome!

**sugabee14:** I'm really happy you liked it ^^!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the series Naruto or anything you can find there, from characters (including the fodder) to settings. All I have are my original creations.

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**Codenames for Disaster: Saru, Nakimushi and Melon**

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**Chapter 2: Hindrances Already**

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The meeting had finally reached its end, but the tension between the newly formed teams was just at its beginning. Everywhere across the room, you could see this palette of emotions painted on these youngster's faces – excitement, anxiety, exasperation, indifference and even annoyance mixed together. Not many approved the choices made for them, some really loud about this issue and only few were lucky enough to having been assigned with at least one person to their liking.

Soon enough, three sets of footsteps were echoing down one of the dim lit hallways leading towards the adjoining building from the Academy. The two-level brick construction was normally used by researchers and some of the staff working part time as Academy teachers, mostly studying the fields of Biology and Medicine. Occasionally, few select children from the Academy would be allowed partake in special training courses held in one of the greenhouses or large gardens it housed. Various plants, which normally you could not find in the vast forests of the Fire Country, were brought from lands far away and had been carefully grown in strict environments, the sole purpose – to keep crossing over the new possibilities these plants would help improve various cures or create new ones, studying the new properties that would ultimately help shinobi during missions or doctors in the hospitals. But the program wasn't as popular, nor was it as good as it had been during war times, when the person responsible for running it was none other than one of the Three Legendary Sannins, whose brilliance in these domains were unprecedented to this day.

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"So...", the stronger female voice suddenly broke through the veil of silence that enveloped the trio. "I don't recall ever seeing you two in any of my classes here. Where were you two studying?", the green haired girl inquired, ignoring the slight changes in her new teammate's walking and the boy's constant negative vibe around her, which was slowly beginning to piss her off.

"Umm... Far west wing classrooms...", Jewel answered a tad hesitantly after some awkward silent moments. Naoko wasn't even the least interested in interacting with their new teammate, his gaze anywhere else but the green-haired girl.

"West wing? Thought those were only reserved for the newest students...", she glanced at Jewel with eyes slightly narrowed down.

"They are, but... Well, they keep a special one for people with... let's say special situations. Also, we both didn't really like going outside in the breaks with the rest so...", the other girl explained, getting overly uncomfortable now. She bit her lower lip and shifted her eyes to look at the darkened walls, spotting from time to time various picture frames or metallic doors.

_"If they really studied in one of those classes, then that means they weren't very well prepared when they had enrolled into the Academy... and it's more than likely that they are still in need of a lot more training to even hope to fight and win against people with my set of skills... Sigh... Why is it always me that gets teamed up with low levels all the time?! Would it have been too much to hope for someone at least half as good as Sasuke is?"_, Midori thought a little irritated, but did not allow this sentiment to be shown on her features. She left the conversation dead as it was inevitably heading that way and switched her gaze to the view ahead of them.

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Light was slowly creeping towards them, allowing a smile to appear on the girl normally serious face as they were now standing in a rather intimate outdoor space, very large one. A few trees were scattered here and there, but after such an odd corridor to walk through, this spacious patch of green felt really welcoming and warmed the soul. Midori closed her eyes for a second relishing the aromatic air, then opened them looking at the massive birch tree lying in the center. She leaned against it, sitting on one of the unburied roots that sprang underneath the ground.

Jewel tried breaking the awkward silence after a secret staring contest suddenly began between Naoko and Midori the moment each of the three had chosen a spot to sit on... the atmosphere was starting to become really eerie.

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"So, Midori-chan? Who do you think our jounin sensei will be?"

"I don't really care. It could be anyone as long as he or she knows what they're doing and properly teach us. Why do ask? Don't tell me you already know about who it will be?", she inquired, letting her emotionless figure crumble slightly with obvious excitement burning in her eyes.

"Oh, not really! It's... more of a hunch. _Which I'm really hoping I am wrong about... __it couldn't be Anko though... I mean... there are so many others to pick from who aren't really so... frightening during training times... like Kurenai-sensei or Kakashi-sensei. Whenever they visit home they were really nice towards me... _anyone is good I guess for me too_... except for her..."_

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Midori was born in a clan with an important heritage behind it. The Shibuya clan had one of the best users of Earth jutsu you could find around Konoha or just about anywhere else in the Fire Country. Once every few generations though, a prodigy would be born and he or she could be eligible to study the clan's scroll of secret jutsu, knowledge passed down to only those chosen by the clan leader. What made these people truly special was they could use these techniques without the risk of having their bodies damaged permanently or greatly shortening their lifespan compared to other clan members who received special permission. They would only resort to use such jutsu as their very last resort during combat since the risks would automatically mean the end of their shinobi life for good. And to truly help you paint a better picture as to how amazing such a person was, they could easily rival with people born and raised in the Earth Country, where Earth jutsu were taken to a whole new level of complexity and power – and it wasn't hard to imagine this being possible considering their ancestors used to live in those lands before moving away due to various political reasons. It was a pretty impressive feat since the last person who could use those jutsu safely was Midori's grandfather, the current leader of the clan.

Her father was next in line to receive the title and many years later her younger brother, Ringo, would carry on the legacy. Although she hoped the rule changes by then since the little troublemaker doesn't have a lot of interest in training or stuff mattering to the clan, not like Midori was at his young age. If he could play games until his hair turned gray it would probably be the best life for him.

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Hearing this, it was really difficult for Naoko not to roll his eyes at Midori's not-so-slightly attempt to make her look like she would be the next in line to earn the rights to the secrets of her family's scrolls. But the boy received enough bruises from Jewel's elbows, who was starting to make a habit out it whenever he was acting too unfriendly or made any nasty remark towards Midori. She actually giggled when Midori talked about her sibling... it must be a really nice feeling to have one...

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Naoko, on the other hand was a little uncomfortable after exchanging the few more personal details of his past, but he did so anyway after Jewel had insisted so much – _eventually Midori will learn about it since we're a team, so why not get it done with it now?_ The boy wasn't part of a fancy, successful clan like Midori was, however his father was viewed as one of the many heroes who died protecting the villagers during the Kyuubi's attack, which took place nearly thirteen years ago. Since then, he had been raised all alone by his mother, who stopped her activity as a kunoichi immediately after the massive memorial service held for the fallen, afraid she'd one day have the same faith as her husband did if she continued on this path. So she decided to open up a small shop and every day she'd await customers with a gentle and kindness not seen in many women - especially not in the girl in front of him with forest green hair who looked really deadly when she'd scrunch her eyes like she did in that moment. Naoko, despite doing a poor job with his studying, was excelling at taijutsu, even his teacher said he had great potential in this area and recommended various advanced scrolls for him to check out. Nevertheless, months after starting his first Academy year, he was transferred to the classroom for 'special' situations in order to have a more lenient study program and get less demanding homework. His mother had turned ill for quite some time and there were days when the boy had to step up and be in charge of helping out with the housework and cooking and making sure she would be properly taken care of – there was no one else there for them and life was really hard for a while... especially since the shop couldn't be open weeks in a row and money was scarce.

Luckily things changed a year back, his parent's friend would sometimes help with the store, no payment required despite the many pleas from his mother – it would be unacceptable to her for him to have missions then use up his free time for more working unpaid hours. Naoko kind of liked being around him and learnt good tips regarding weaponry and other useful skills in their spare time. Like the father figure he never had.

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Jewel was the last one to share her story. She felt awkward as the words kept going, as she didn't know what to tell about herself, so she lied, lied, lied and lied again, despite getting mini stares of protests from Naoko. But both knew this was necessary... even Anko specifically asked Jewel NOT to reveal her condition and life situation to anyone ELSE since it could become a problematic issue and the villagers didn't need to know that among them was someone with the risk of becoming an instable mess.

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_You really don't want to know the drama in the house when Anko found out that Nao-kun knew about it... I've never seen her so mad and upset before. It was terrible..._

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The truth was that Jewel's first seven years of her life were left in complete darkness, she had no information about where she came from, where her parents came from or who they even were... or if she even had a family of her own to begin with.

From time to time she would get these awful and painful headaches, like something was digging and scrambling the insides of her brain and this state would normally be followed by flashes afterwards. Countless ever-changing images would suddenly pop up in front of her eyes – a person's blurry face, a random type of furniture, a piece of clothing, a landscape, snowy fields... in worst occasions she could sometimes hear someone shrieking or feel like she couldn't breathe properly anymore, like she was drowning, getting goosebumps all over her body from the cold and terror the first time she felt this... other times she'd hear a soft, gentle song, at one point humming it absentmindedly which Naoko pointed it out one day.

On the bright side, this 'extreme mode' was only happening once or twice every year, so, thankfully, many more years would be necessary until Jewel would completely lose her marbles and be put into a mental facility – she really hoped she would stay as normal as it gets though... The biggest issue was that nobody could find out what was wrong with her. Brain scans showed nothing out of the ordinary and, mentally, neither did doctors or various healers or even the few persons who were assigned from the Yamanaka clan found anything strange... their jutsu revealed nothing relevant and it was a complete mystery as to what was going on inside her mind... So apparently she had to live with it...

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_Hurraaaaay me..._

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"My parents died during a mission almost five years ago and I've been living with my half-sister ever since. I don't... remember much of my parents... Because of that I enrolled much later in the Academy, however managed to finish my studies a bit earlier than normal. I'm turning 12 in a few months actually~!"

"Oh?", Midori asked surprised, scratching that first impression that BOTH of them had really low levels. If they allowed such a girl to finish more quickly then something about her was deemed remarkable. And despite already disliking his other team member greatly, if teachers said he was that good at taijutsu then there was hope for that jerk to actually be more than 'all talk, no action'.

"Anyway, onee-san, she's really amazing. She has been a Specialist Jounin for many years already and she's barely in her middle twenties! I want to grow up to be just as good as her one day... Also, umm... we... live in a house, that's not really far from the Academy and there's a really awesome pet store nearby that I'm always visiting when I am around the area-"

"She was always late for classes thanks to that. Teachers didn't like it at one point.", Naoko added with a grin.

"ALMOST always. See, today we got into class just fine~!"

"Sure, sure. It wasn't because of me almost having to drag you in my arms to class."

"You're never going to let that one go, hm?"

"What's so special about a pet store?", Midori asked curiously, interrupting their faint bickering.

"Onee-san never lets me keep anything at home saying that I can't properly take care of a pet and she doesn't have time to take care of another soul...", Jewel pouted like a child and looked away feeling quite depressed. "Plus, I just... like how happy they make me feel, especially when I hold some kittens in my hand... I can't... really explain why exactly."

"Hmm... I see. Just like me and my lovelies here.", Midori stated, feeling the grass near her with her fingertips.

"You and the grass are in a special relationship?", Naoko asked a bit rudely, receiving a well-earned Jewel-elbow hit in his side once more.

"Ha. Ha. I am very amused.", the girl said blankly while slightly nodding her head disapprovingly at him. "It doesn't matter anyway. Also, Jewel... that name of yours is rather uncommon, isn't it?"

"Hm? You mean 'Jewel'?"

"Yes. Yours would have been Hoseki in the usual Fire Country dialect, right?"

"Aaaah. Yeah, probably. I guess my parents thought I was... _**odd**_ from birth and decided to name me accordingly..."

"Being odd is not always something to frown upon.", Midori had a gentler tone in her voice when saying this, almost allowing a smile to appear on her features.

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All in all, Midori was actually surprised of both their stories. She had never truly experienced death of loved ones, despite some people in her clan dying either of old age or due to failures in missions... they were not important people that marked her life profoundly like they did to other members, but she still paid her respects to them every week at the shrine.

"I think...", she began after much consideration, catching both of her team mates attention. "...we'll get along just fine... _At least with Jewel anyway. She reminds me of Hinata a bit_. _The other one is actually worse than Ringo..._"

"Of course!", Jewel cheered happily, while Naoko raised an eyebrow at her, not thinking it would become a possibility too soon... if ever.

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The following morning Jewel didn't have a full night sleep and, for once, Anko was not to blame for this predicament. The girl was so nervous about who their team leader would be that she couldn't sleep properly that night, thinking about her new jounin sensei and the types of missions they would do together. It didn't really hit her until later that day... the fact that she was a Genin. But after contemplating what this meant, it was actually really nerve wracking. Also, would that sensei know about her condition? Would he treat her any differently or become awkward about it...?

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_'Not everyone was so accepting... not even at the hospital; many have even made demands to the Hokage to lock me up fearing I could become really dangerous one day. A trained kunoichi with chances of becoming unstable was like a 'ticking bomb' to these people. *Sigh*...'_

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She arrived almost an hour earlier at the meeting site, bringing with her a Sudoku booklet to kill some time. She stood legs-crossed near a staircase, on top of the Academy's rooftop wishing her heart would stop beating so fast from all these thoughts and worries... absentmindedly she began humming the gentle song to try and calm herself down.

After about half an hour later Midori arrived and took a spot nearby Jewel, wearing her usual blank expression as a conversation ensured between the girls. Not much later on Naoko showed up with a slightly nervous - but sweet - grin when his eyes pierced Jewel's. It didn't take a genius to see something was up, Midori secretly switching her gaze between those two... obviously this one had a huge crush on the dark haired girl, however she did not react at all to that special attention from him. Either she did not care as much or was too innocent to notice something more than friendly gestures from a boy. In any case...

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_'Poor bloke, but he has no chance to get a girlfriend with such a weak will. Serves him right for being such a prick of a human being though.'_

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At exactly 9 o'clock, a sharp sound was heard near their location, smoke suddenly spreading in the area, causing the three of them to cough up wildly. Definitely not prepared for such an entrance... The smoke soon cleared out revealing the figure of a woman that put Jewel in the situation in wanting to bang her head on a pole or scream out loud in frustration. She sighed depressed and did not bother hiding her displeasure from her features.

_"Why did I even think of Kurenai-san or Kakashi-san being our sensei, when deep down I knew the answer all along... That's why she said we'll see each other more often..."_

"Good. You're all here, props to you three for being punctual people! _Unlike someone else_. My name is Mitarashi Anko—"

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_"Mitarashi? That means...",_ Midori glanced towards Jewel and examined her body language. She did not know what to make of this situation, but from what she gathered this 'Anko' must be the relative taking care of Jewel. A Specialist Jounin... that wasn't given to just any Jounin so this might actually be a very good choice for a leader! Midori was becoming more excited, imagining what knowledge this woman would be willing to share and what training methods she had!

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"— and from this day forward I'll be your new Jounin sensei. You'll be carrying on missions under my supervision, so let's have a lot of fun working together in the future, shall we?", she said all of this having a mischievous grin, her gaze focused especially at the blue-haired girl who shuddered a bit. Jewel recognized that look... it wasn't a look she liked.

_"Well...she is quite intimidating, but this is what a good teacher should feel like..."_, thought Midori.

"I want you all to share something about yourself. Anything you want, from likes to dislikes, maybe even dreams. We'll begin with you.", and she grinned enthusiastically at Jewel, although she knew her very well and it seemed like a pointless thing to do.

_"Play along or the extra work will be special in your case.",_ Anko's gaze became deadlier for a split second and Jewel quickly began.

"I'm Mitarashi Jewel. I like a lot of things including waterfalls, swimming pools, drawing, painting, plush toys, a lot of type of sweets, puddings, cakes, pancakes, cookies, animals, especially cats-", she obviously tried to annoy Anko, although she really did like all of the above and many more.

"Any dislikes?", Anko interrupted, trying hard not to lose her temper.

"Umm...I dislike waking up really **early** in the morning thanks to a certain somebody... alarm clocks, mushrooms, spiders, bees, ants, headaches-"

"Dream...?", the woman was slowly losing her patience, her grin a really frightening one will all the twitching.

"My dream is...", she said more confused now as she put her right palm under her chin and closing one of her eyes, thinking harder "Complicated...", she shrugged the answer for even she didn't have an idea what she really wished for in life... Being a kunoichi was good I guess... but she also loved nurturing pets or swimming.

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"Ok... What about you?", asked Anko placing her attention upon Midori.

"My name is Shibuya Midori. I like melons, orchids and eating some ramen once in a while. I dislike shallow and arrogant people, lies and my little brother when he has nothing better to do than bother me during my training. My dream is to become one of the most powerful kunoichi my family has ever seen and be as famous as my grandfather, Shibuya Kyouta."

"Aiming high I see...", Anko smirked, glancing at poor Jewel so she would take a better example from her team mate.

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"And you, boy?"

"I'm Aizawa Naoko. I like training in taijutsu and learning to use as many type of weapons I can. I don't like raspberries and my dream is... to become between the best taijutsu users in Konoha and to protect the ones I care about_. And make people acknowledge me, proving them I'm not the loser they all think I am and that I can be of some help... and marry Jewel :x:x:x ."_

_"Hm... they all have unique personalities. But do they have what it takes to accomplish their dreams? And for goodness sake Jewel... I know your mind is scrambled sometimes, but a life without ideals is good as a dead one..."_

"Sensei? What about you?", Midori asked raising her hand earning some soft giggles from sensei and a disapproving glance from Jewel..

"I like many things including dango. I dislike people who treat training and life as a shinobi as a 'hobby'. My dream... is almost in my reach. You three better not disappoint me...or else.", at that point she became more serious and had a cold expression.

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"Tomorrow at dawn, be sure to meet me next to the first entrance of the Forest of Death for your last exam... survival training."

Naoko was really surprised because of this news. "Exam? What do you mean, I thought we already graduated from the Academy and we'll start doing missions now."

"You thought wrong. And I need to tell you guys that out of the 51 students that graduate each year only a few teams will be picked as to officially become a genin while the others will have to go back to the Academy and start all over."

Jewel and Naoko were both shocked, while Midori raised an eyebrow, masking her concerned tone.

"Then...what use was to pass the Academy exam and 'graduate' if there's a chance we'll be sent back?"

"That exam only picks the candidates who are qualified to become genin, the rest were formalities. Since you have no other questions—", the woman smirked.

"I hav—", Jewel wanted to say something, but Anko completely ignored her.

"— I'll see you tomorrow when I'll decide whether you must be sent back or not... Oh! And as a reminder, this exam is a test with a 80% dropout rate and I won't hesitate to send any of you back to those Academy benches if I see your **team** to be too... lacking." She threatened the three, her eyes piercing Jewel's blue ones who began trembling slightly, feeling a newfound pressure. For some reason Anko was acting really cold that day and Jewel didn't like it one bit...

And with that she turned her back to them and disappeared in a blink of an eye, leaving behind a big trail of dust. For a minute neither one of team 11 dared to speak, the only sounds heard being made by their breathing and the environment.

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"That's great...JUST great!" Naoko yelled, hitting the ground angrily. "Years of training gone to waste if we fail. I don't want to ever return to that place!"

"Complaining won't change anything. This is the situation; deal with it like a man! Tomorrow, I am not going to stand around and tremble in fear like you are doing now.", Midori spoke, unfazed by Anko's words. She had confidence in her skills to do great at anything that gets thrown at her as a challenge.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I already forgot you were such a _**great**_kunoichi unlike us simple commoners.", he hissed back, emphasizing the word 'great' with an angry expression.

"He who complains a lot is usually the weakest person of a group.", Midori frowned and gave him a dark smile, a vein popping in her head. It was hard... really hard not to snap at him for that insult.

"Oi... You really want a fight, algae hair?", he asked clenching his right fist. She had circle white eyes, one of them twitching.

_"Did he just say algae? That boy doesn't know whom he is messing with. _ If you really want to be humiliated before the training with our sensei, then I will happily lend you the help!"

"Bring it on!"

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**"STOP ARGUING, BOTH OF YOU!"**, Jewel finally flipped out and screamed, a very uncharacteristically attitude from her.

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"Really, we're supposed to be a team and this is not how a team should be acting! You shouldn't fight over such little things all the time... All we have to do tomorrow is give our best on the field and look ahead proudly that no matter what we do, we did our best and have no regrets no matter what the result might be..." Jewel continued, Naoko immediately gazing into her eyes, filled with concern. Her eyes were glossier than normal and he knew what would follow if he didn't back down. Ashamed, he quickly apologized, followed by Midori who had done the same after realizing she had allowed her emotions to get the best out of her.

"You're right and I'm sorry; I shouldn't have lowered myself like this..."

The 9-seconds peace made between them was almost broken, Naoko feeling the urge to punch her really hard, even though she was only a girl. _Lowered... myself? That bitch..._ _If Jewel wasn't feeling this horrible I'd have said one more word or two! _He growled and decided the best he could do was just leave and vent his frustrations elsewhere, seriously annoyed by the algae girl.

"He's really one of the nicest people I've met... ", Jewel broke the silence with a trembling voice, still very hurt by Naoko's outburst. She knew what his fears and struggles were at home... with his mom's illness. Missions, even Genin ones, gave money at the end so him becoming a Genin would help improve their life at home for the better... hearing he could risk doing all those Academy years over again would crush him terribly... "Please don't have a wrong opinion about him! He... He can be a stupid hot head sometimes, but his intentions are in the right place... Just wait and see!", Jewel spoke, trying to smile at the end and keep her tears from showing up. It almost convinced Midori she was telling the truth... but she would not accept insults lightly. She could try, but if he keeps being so stubborn and won't stop acting like a child, then things won't work out so smoothly in this team and Midori will NOT accept it being her fault!

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**A/N: I tried keeping the chapter short but I failed miserably! . Haha, but jolly good job reaching the end of the chapter! ^o^ The next chapter will also be an OC centric one, however after that I will add more interactions with other characters from the Naruto world so please keep following the events unfolding!**


	3. Chapter 3: Anko's Survival Game

**Reminder: **Words in Italics are usually people's thoughts or memories ^^

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the series Naruto or anything you can find there, from characters (including the fodder) to settings. All I have are my original creations.

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**Codenames for Disaster: Saru, Nakimushi and Melon**

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**Chapter 3: Anko's Survival Game**

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***RING RING RING RING RING RING RING***

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The aggravating sounds filled up the entire room, violently waking up Jewel who was still very much caught into the embrace of a sweet dream, the sudden shock making her slip off the chair onto the hard wooden floor. Very much confused and sensing the start of a terrible back ache, she tried making sense of her surroundings as her sleepy eyes laid onto the many scrolls spread around her and a few dropping onto her from the table. A certain parchment had remained 'glued' onto her cheek the entire night as she had fallen asleep on it leaving a very nice kanji imprint onto her pale skin.

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"Stupid alarm... stupid early survival exam...", she mumbled annoyed as she dragged her feet out of the room, yawning uncontrollably.

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Staying awake way past her bed time to do some last minute preparations might not have been the most brilliant of ideas she has had in a while... considering how sour the rest of the day turned out to be after that quarrel between her team mates, Jewel had been terribly distraught the entire afternoon, unable to properly concentrate on getting any decent work done for the exam. In a blink of an eye, she found herself from walking aimlessly through the streets of Konoha to looking outside her window and noticing the moon high above the sky, shining over the village. That's when she snapped back to reality from her daze and panic mode ensured.

Hurriedly washing herself up and grabbing some leftovers from dinner to relieve her empty stomach, Jewel equipped herself with the ninja gear she had carefully packed for that morning's survival training.

It didn't take long before she had crossed paths with Naoko, who was patiently waiting for the girl near the stairs of his family's shop. At that moment, he didn't have a grin plastered onto his face... he didn't even smile like he'd always do whenever he saw the girl in his presence. Instead, he showed clear signs of nervousness, a deep frown replacing his usual expression, so most of their walk together was covered in a tense silence. Naoko knew that fear would only cause him trouble today, so he promised himself he would put all his heart and use all his strength to get through the challenge awaiting ahead of them... He was really exhausted though having practiced his kunai and shuriken throwing almost the entire night, skipping precious sleep time just as Jewel had. Also, he sustained some minor injuries and his left wrist was throbbing like hell, being rather difficult to use it without feeling surges of pain.

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**The Forest of Death **was unlike anything Jewel had seen before, gasping – in awe at first, then a wave of panic followed after a screeching howl was heard seemingly coming from deep within the forest. Those gigantic trees in front of her eyes appeared more and more dangerous by the minute... Midori was already there, doing some last minute body stretching and breathing exercises to ensure she'd be at least around 110% capacity. Unlike Jewel and Naoko, she was the only one who didn't seem tired at all and felt so confident, her attitude was actually a big help into improving both of their self-esteem... slightly.

"I don't like this one bit...", Jewel mumbled after a while, unable to keep still as she was walking back and forth, trying to see through the wired fence and gaze deeper inside the forest. "I really hope Anko doesn't want us go in there..."

"It can't be so bad, I'm certain those rumors were made just to scare off any unwanted people from the village.", Midori tried speaking reassuringly.

"I doubt it for some reason... why is it named of** 'Death'** anyway? Do people actually die in here often?! If so... **Then I REALLY hope Anko won't make us go in there!**"

"It's hard to imagine that our sensei would already risk our lives, it's quite unheard of in our times for a Genin team to die because of 'training-gone-wrong'... Relax already, you're starting to make me feel uneasy.", Midori spoke blankly, making an effort to not roll her eyes at this assumption. Seeds of doubt were beginning to form inside her heart, no thanks to Jewel...

"Sorry...",Jewel pursed her lips into a thin line, narrowing her eyes in the process, those threatening to become closer to lines as well. Midori obviously had never trained or heard much about Anko – that WOULD be her style actually. _A little life threatening situation here and there can do miracles on a shinobi and its growth_... Yup... Awesome life philosophy. Eh... did she just see something move near that tree?!

"Don't worry.", Naoko intervened, suddenly placing a hand onto Jewel's shoulder, making her shudder a bit. "I'll make sure nothing will hurt you today."

"..."

"... Okay.", the girl smiled seeing traces of his sweet smile back onto his face again.

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It did not take long for Anko to make her appearance there, at exactly 6:30 sharp – right on schedule. She was drinking a warm cup of coffee and holding a plate of dango, which she finished... devoured rather quickly in front of their eyes. She must have been the most radiant morning person you could see in the entire area, an impressively large smile plastered onto her face as her eyes traced the figures of her three Newbie students.

The rules of the '**game**' she planned for as examination were fairly simple.

Her inspiration for it lied within Kakashi's own ingenious method, which she witnessed the year before out of curiosity and she deemed it as a rather smart Genin sorting tool. In Anko's version too, the kids had to create their own unique strategies and come at her with the intent of grabbing the bells she tied around her belt. The person or persons who couldn't complete the task would be forced to make their way back towards the Academy, in deep shame and humiliation, where they'd be forced to repeat the ENTIRE range of courses, all over again. However, if for some unexpected reason NONE would manage to steal one of those bells, then all three of them would be disqualified. Moreover, their hitai-ate would also be confiscated and, without making exceptions for anyone, and I mean, ANYONE, they would be going straight back to Academy classes! But things were not so desperate though since all three of them had the slim chance to get through the exam together, but this was only possible during the first few hours of the game. The test would start at exactly 7 o'clock' and every 2 hours she will remove a bell from her side, making it lose its value and be rendered useless to them. Meaning ONE of them will surely be sent back. Another 2 hours should pass, another bell would be removed, then TWO of them would leave... at exactly 1 pm... if nobody catches a bell, they would all be removed from the team and could say their farewell to becoming a Genin.

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"Weapons and jutsu of all kind are allowed during the test. Actually, it's most desired to use them or else you can stop wasting my time and return to the Academy on your own two feet already! Is everything clear so far?!", Anko inquired, all three of them agreeing with the rules, being more or far less depressed than anticipated *coughMidoricough*. Unfortunately, booby traps and many other surprises awaited each of them if they weren't careful to properly explore their surroundings, the danger of being poisoned or stabbed reaching merely 60%.

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_'Wow, 60%? That's all she could manage? Why not 80 or 90% like usual?!'_, Jewel thought sarcastically, not sure whether the more discouraging thought was failing or actually going through this... torture game. Fortunately for them, this test didn't take place in that creepy forest circled by the wired fence where countless warning signs were posted at every few hundred meters, earning a _'Thank Kami-sama for that..."._ However, the location was just around 8 kms West from their current position.

"Wait, didn't you tell us this bell test starts at 7 o'clock? That's in a few minutes...", Naoko asked curiously. Suddenly, a gush of wind blew in his face and Anko's silhouette appeared right in front of him, causing him to quickly make a step backwards and gasp loudly, scaring the s*it out of him... That speed... it was more incredible than what the sensei normally showed. Even Jewel was amazed and watched with horror stricken eyes as Anko had never shown that level of speed before during their training... Never.

'_F*ck it, this s*it was becoming one f*cked up exam', _Naoko fumed with anger as it was slowly boiling inside of him, as was the panic and the countless sensations of hopelessness in his guts.

"Then... you better hurry up and not waste any more precious minutes~~~!"

And with that she disappeared completely, leaving the three of them alone in the fields... **Wait**... **IT HAD ALREADY STARTED?!**

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*.*

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Naoko was the first one to arrive, taking only an outstanding 32.7 minutes of running his lungs out to get there. He was heavily panting for a few minutes, sweat dripping down his face and staining his clothes, however it didn't take long for him to recover his breathing, already used to much harsher distances to run (20km was max he could do at full speed before he'd feel close to fainting). Pissed off he couldn't wait for Jewel or help her in any way, he thought the best course of action would have been to try and plan a strategy on how to trick the woman into letting her guard down and fetch himself a nice bell in the meantime.

Midori came in second, taking around 42 minutes to arrive there, just as worn out as Naoko was. She quickly took in her surroundings and even managed to notice a few traps in her small recon. It was fairly easy to sense where Naoko was, however sensei was really tough to spot, visually and chakra wise. Since sensei was a Jounin and sensing she wasn't a really patient person, the best course of action would have been to create traps of her own and plant them in a few tree's blind spots. It would take at least 10 mins for each, but three should suffice for what she had in mind. And she could use Naoko's impatience and nature to cause sensei to be too busy to focus on Midori's actions and this could prove vital at one point!

Jewel was way, way behind them in both planning and... heck, getting there, taking almost 57.4 minutes of the first 2-hours set. Out of the three, she was closest to fainting as she felt her heart was nearly ready to crack open her chest and splash all over the grass. On her hands and knees, panting heavily after that ridiculous non-stop running, she managed to find some momentary peace behind some Barberry bushes. Vigilant, she kept her senses sharp for anything out of the ordinary, besides the leaves being blown away by gentle winds or unexplained shadows... she truly feared the type of obstacles Anko had created to stop the three of them in their tracks, especially Jewel, since the woman knew almost everything there was to know about the girl, her strengths AND, more importantly, her weaknesses... This did not seem fair though... this bell test was so ridiculous and already Anko had fooled them and managed to steal almost an hour of their time with that 8kms trickery... And Jewel knew the woman had more up her sleeves... and one thing was becoming clearer by the second.

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Team 11 was not going to survive in this format for much longer. And so far it seemed Jewel was candidate number one to leave... _**but not without a fight!**_

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_._

Naoko was around 5 minutes away from Jewel's location and around 2 minutes from Midori's. With a kunai as his choice of weapon, he searched and searched for any chakra signs from the Jounin woman, absent mindedly jumping from one branch to another. With all these thoughts shifted onto her, Naoko forgot one essential detail to keep in mind... and it cost him to be thrown into the air and smashing right into the ground, painful sounds of bones breaking and muscle tearing echoing through his ears, as a horrible welp of pain escaped his lips. His hand instinctively went to grab his left shoulder blade, rolling on his side growling in distress. One of the woman's booby traps had been set off and it took him by surprise when stacks of heavy logs just slammed into him, projecting him into the ground like a ball.

"Tch. Have you been paying attention at all to what I've said before...?", Anko scoffed, her voice echoing through the area surrounding the boy as he was struggling to get up from the ground and pin point the location of that irritating purple haired woman.

Mentally cursing by his carelessness, he rose onto his feet once more inspecting the damage more closely... it was bad, but he could still use his arm although his fighting capacity dropped to around 63% - at most. Finally catching onto the chakra sign he was looking for, he gritted his teeth being incredibly pissed off and immediately dashed out in the open again. After he got through some distance as planned, he suddenly shifted his body, facing the direction he came from and threw multiple kunais in some nearby Maple trees. He landed with as much grace as he could muster on a thick branch as wooden planks fell down.

"Now we're talking... But it this the best you can do, Naoko-chan?", the jingles of the bells freezing the boy, as he felt Anko's presence, who was standing high and mighty, right behind him with her famous devilish smile.

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_"Tch... Let's see if this works. I just need to get a little closer."_

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He tried delivering a blow, and she stopped his fist in the last moment, squeezing it in her hand quite painfully. Not giving up and actually feeling more fired up, he launched attacks after attacks with one leg at a time, and as soon as he felt like she let her guard down, he swiftly attached an extremely thin wire on a bell, masking his actions with another attack, which was intentionally meant to fail. Anko's eyes narrowed quite a bit, after which she quickly shoved him away, sending him flying into the air a few meters. Naoko grabbed a hold of a thin branch with his injured arm and ignoring the excruciating pain, he whipped around it, and just as he sprung towards sensei, quickly pulling on the thread of wire feeling genuinely hopeful for the first in this exam, she vanished. In an instant, she appeared right behind him in the air, catching him off guard and seriously unprotected. Smirking, the woman grabbed his brown T-Shirt with her sharp nails, pinning him on the ground painfully, her right knee resting on his back while her hands immobilized his.

"**Ninja tactic number 1: taijutsu**. You have a great gift in this field and that plan would have worked with someone below my level... but it's not enough to outsmart me~~!"

Naoko was mentally slapping himself for ever believing one of his plans could have ever worked against such a high level kunoichi or that he could have ever managed to pass this f*cking test... Anko's grip on him loosened after he winced from the pain some more and, with a sudden noise, she was gone. Disappeared.

_._

**"DAMN IT TO HELL!",** Naoko yelled, hitting the ground with his left fist, the pain surges never stopping and almost numbing his damaged areas... if only he were stronger... if only he were smarter... but this was it...

_._

_"I can't do this by myself... "_

Suddenly, his thoughts were shattered by a high-pitched scream that came not far from his position. Recognizing the voice, his color immediately drained from his face in fear and he immediately started a sprint towards the source, the adrenaline pounding through his system.

_"What the hell has happened? S**t! Wait for me, Jewel!"_

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*.*

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It was difficult coming up with strategies against Anko...

In a real life-or-death situation, for a Genin-level person to go against a Jounin this would, from the start, be regarded as a suicidal task. Moreover, Anko was between Konoha's top tier so it made it even more challenging to find a weakness the three of them could best exploit. With their levels and skills alone, they could not hope in becoming a match for the woman and, taking this into consideration, the most logical action would be for all of them to team up and see how it goes afterwards. The most problematic thing about this idea was that stupid bell rule – one being removed every 2 hours and lowering their chances to officially become part of team 11... Anko was known to be a cruel individual at times, but she was always giving people a FAIR chance, yet this was anything but fair! No... this issue was also part of the true test somehow... But she didn't exactly figure out in what way yet...

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***THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD***

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Suddenly, the ground started shaking wildly, Jewel becoming more and more unbalanced on her legs. The sounds of branches breaking and trees crashing on the ground were rapidly becoming louder and louder, coming from the direction behind the girl. Jewel quickly turned around her gaze, grasping a couple of shuriken from her pouch as her heart was pounding in her chest. Eyes widen to the max, she frenetically tried locating the source, however nothing out of the ordinary was in her sight and, just as suddenly, the shaking had stopped, everything becoming once again peaceful and quiet... too quiet.

_"W-What was that?! Has she taken interest in me already? Oh oh... that's really not good..."_

Slightly relaxing her body, yet still on the lookout for anything suspicious, she decided to pursue this idea to search for Naoko or Midori, when she felt something slimy run past her leg. Shuddering slightly, she turned around only to feel her heart instantly stop beating for a few seconds, as fear pushed away the remaining courage and confidence left inside. A drop of sweat slowly poured down her cheek as Jewel made an eye-to-eye contact with a pair of huge glassy crimson eyes, probably belonging to the one that disturbed the silence moments ago. It had to be from Anko's snake collection, an extra large grey serpent towering over the girl almost 4-5 times in height revealing a long rosy tongue, which was lazily dancing in the air, the venom splashing from its tip eroding anything it came in contact with. The girl was trembling, feeling the need to hurl all of her breakfast and remaining dinner content out of her stomach... her legs stopped listening to her wish to get the hell out of there and simply remained frozen in the spot, mouth and eyes widely open.

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To make matters even worse, a sharply painful headache had taken over her mind, which only meant one troubling thing – soon she'll have one of those frustrating episodes. And it could not come at a worst time.

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_"W-what's wrong with me... It's just one of her snakes, I've seen plenty other before... why can't I move... In a time like this... and those red eyes, did they trigger this...?"_, she grabbed her forehead, feeling it close to bursting open, and heard a screeching noise coming from the giant beast in front of her. The snake rose from the ground becoming as big as it could and it was ready to plunge its venomous fangs deep into her flesh. Its giant head vanished for a moment inside the Sun's blinding light and quickly after it rushed towards the girl, preparing to crush Jewel. She immediately closed her eyes shut and held her arms in a protective way, screaming and hoping it was all just a bad dream...

.

_And then everything turned dark for a while...a pair of strange crimson eyes, much different and darker than the ones the giant scaly beast had, staring back at her – the only piece of memory she managed to capture from those memory flashes and not forget._

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The girl didn't know how much time had passed, but after she opened her eyelids meeting, she was rather puzzled as to what had happened before she passed out. The snake appeared to have had vanished into thin air and not only that... it was like it had never been there in the first place. All the spots she knew the snake's venom dropped upon were intact, even the cracks in the ground were no longer there...

_"What's going on... I was sure there was a snake a moment before... did she cancel the jutsu or..._ could have it been someth—", she absentmindedly spoke, rubbing her temple as she slowly made her way up on her feet.

**"JEWEL!"**

"Eh?"

"Are you alright? Are you hurt somewhere?!", at that point the voice of the only boy in the team was heard in the horizon and he swiftly landed a few meters next to her.

"Nao-kun?", she asked with disbelief, but afterwards had a very relieved expression. "I'm fine... nothing really.", she replied with a weak smile, the image of the bloodthirsty eyes still fresh in her mind.

"Why are your clothes all dirty?", she asked wanting to change the subject fast, but then slightly regretted her decision. On a more attentive gaze, she noticed just how incredibly beat up he was and it really made her worry after she learnt of his injuries.

"Huh? Oh... erm...there you go...", he was pretty embarrassed with the situation and had a faint blush, one of his eye's twitching aggressively. "Anko... got me unprepared... but that's going to change soon!"

"You too...? I really hope Midori-chan has better luck than us with her...", she mumbled those words that were loud enough to make Naoko carry a very sour expression, like he was in the presence of expired food.

"Why?! That goody two-shoes doesn't need luck! Didn't you hear when she proclaimed herself as being the future best kunoichi there ever was?"

"She said no such thing... Are you sure Anko didn't hurt you in here as well.", Jewel asked, a tad rudely pointing to her head as to imply more... permanent head damage.

"Jeeeeeeewels... You're actually on her side?!", he complained putting an angry pout face and swiftly turning his back on her. All she did was shake her head disapprovingly and smile, relieved his injuries were not TOO problematic for him.

"Look. Just try and cooperate with her... Is that too much to ask?"

**"YES!"**

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*.*

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Already finished setting up traps of her own in three nearby locations, Midori was patiently circling her 'hunting' zone for Anko's whereabouts, blending in perfectly with the scene around her and making sure each step she took wouldn't create any sounds. She was carefully analyzing her surroundings, disarming a few of Anko's traps and capturing every suspicious noise... 15 minutes or so before that time limit for the first 2-hours set was over, she heard Jewel's sharp screeching approximately 500m away her location, which caused the green haired to scowl darkly after mistakenly shaking off some bushes, afterwards becoming very uneasy as she believed somebody was now watching her moves... _right... left... up... down..._ Midori carefully made a few steps backwards in the middle of the clearing, before she spoke out loud.

"I know you're here, sensei! What did you do to Jewel?", she asked slowly bringing her hands closer in a fighting stance. Chuckles could be heard in front of Midori, who spotted Anko as she was sitting on a tree stump, playing with one of her kunais.

"**Shinobi tactic number 2: genjutsu**. Jewel fell for it so easily though, it makes me really sad...", she explained this while having no hint of sadness in her voice. She pierced the girl's eyes. "Why don't you try and steal a bell from me like the rest of the party, hmm~~?"

"That was the plan from the start, sensei.", the sentence was spoken from various directions, the Midori in front of Anko instantly collapsing on the grass and turning into a giant pile of mud, slowly melting away.

_"Impressive... she's already learnt that type of jutsu?"_

Anko turned her head left, and caught a glimpse of metal in the rays of the Sun coming at her in full speed. She veered on the opposite direction, avoiding the rain of shuriken only to stop, carrying an annoyed expression, as she triggered another trap of the girl's by accident. A big explosion occurred after multiple explosive tags ignited, causing quite some damage to the area the jounin landed, which was also marred with explosives hidden underneath the soil. As impressed as she was by the girl's skills, she was done 'playing' with this kid as she noticed one of the bells from her pockets got the wire blasted off and Midori was heading towards it.

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** "NOT JUST YET, MIDORI! KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!" **

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The thick grey smoke, which arose from underneath the burnt ground, and the actual explosions alarmed Naoko and Jewel. Without wasting any more precious time, they made a sprint to that location and, being the fastest, Naoko was the first to arrive and what he saw amused him terribly. A smile was making its way over his face, followed by a set of mean laughter, which, despite the pain it caused his injuries, this was worth every second of it, dramatically lifting his spirits up. Shortly after, Jewel landed next to him, her cheeks rosy from that entire running around, oddly eyeing her laughing teammate with a bit of concern. She gasped as she watched the figure of poor Midori, panting heavily as she stood on rocky grounds, with her arms and feet tied with a very resistant rope, dozens of small snakes crawling around and over her body. With veins popping on her forehead, risking to burst open, and numerous deadly glares given to Naoko, Midori got out from the embarrassing situation with the aid of Jewel, who got rid of most of those snaked with a few kicks here and there. Midori was so pissed off, that she repeatedly stepped on the head of multiple snakes, flames coming out of her eyes and her entire composure just crumbling.

With anime sweat drops, Jewel tried cheering up the girl with an innocent voice. "Midori-chan? Don't be so upset about this~~~! We'll find a way to beat her toge-"

"UGH! I would have taken one of the bells if it hadn't been for a minor miscalculation!", anger lacing every word she spat out. "Next time, I'll get one for sure. See you guys later and thanks for the help, Jewel!"

"M-Midoriiiiii-chaaaaaaan! MIDORI-CHAN, PLEASE **WAIT UP!**", Jewel yelled and before she could finally talk to them about her idea, she went away leaving no trace behind to follow. She then tried reasoning with Naoko to go and fetch her back, but her pleas were rendered futile as he did not want to go and waste his remaining energy to go and bring back the only person he wished gone from in front of his eyes. He was too damn stubborn to even listen to what advantages they could get if they were 3 against 1, instead of only 2 people... so, for a while they teamed up hoping that their new strategy would be successful. Also, Naoko wanted both Jewel and him to get the remaining bells and teaming up was perfect in his mind! As long as they could ditch Midori out of the team for good!

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A giant red light engulfed the area and Anko's voice was heard like an echo – **"TIME'S UP! COMMENCING SET 2, NOW!"**

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*.*

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**A/N: **Hello my darlings ~~! ^^ Next chapter we'll get to see interactions between my OCs and other Naruto chars and the outcome *obvious one* of this little game hope you enjoy reading this and write me your opinions and thoughts, likes and dislikes *I TRY MAKING THEM SHORTER, BUT IT'S HARD MAN xD!


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